Zombies man...they creep me out...
haha not really! to tell the truth, I'm one of the biggest zombie fans out there! and that's why for my summer programming project (and hopefully longer if all goes well) I'm going to be programming a free-roaming Zombie survival game!
This project technically started around june 20th, but the work that was done back then was mostly sloppy and unorganized. the past couple of days I've been tweaking my old code (what little there was) and typing up documentation. in just a few short days I've been able to make great progress in the design of this game and some of the basic framework for the engine.but enough of this boring stuff! let's talk about the game...
I hope to have a variety of features available in this game. to begin with, the game is a top down turn based Rogue-like, but it's not quite that simple. the game will be 2-dimensional, but there will be a nice user interface to help smooth out the rough edges, and there will be much more depth here than a rogue-like can offer. I'm going to be using a modified version of the SPECIAL system from Fallout in order to create and manage characters as they gain experience and level up (with custom perks and traits and such, of course). This means that you can really customize your character down to the finest details. I'm also hoping to provide a couple dozen starting occupations (think of them like kits. they give you starting equipment, a choice of a few logical starting locations, and some skill bonuses) which will allow for quite a bit of replayability.
The game will be played in Bartonville, a fictional town on the east coast that was celebrating the 4th of july (which is why I've waited until the 4th-ish to let anyone know about this project) when the outbreak began. you play a survivor and you try to accomplish a couple of objectives and survive the zombie apocalypse. the game will be a free-roam sandbox, and the objectives will not be laid out before you, so it will be your job to determine the best way to win the game (there are multiple ways for different character types, which result in different endings depending on various factors).
The zombie hordes will be very large, and I'm hoping that I can load and run the city itself with the zombie hordes without bogging down the game too much (The AI is what I'm most worried about on the zombies, since the city itself is just a collection of strings, coordinates, and images). but if I can't, I promise to provide the same number of zombies, but with a few clever workarounds (like only the zombies within a certain radius of the character will make moves, giving the illusion of the entire city moving). In any case, I'll be using a very easily modifiable map system so that anybody with the will and the time can go in and edit the map or make their own. if I find hte time and there's enough demand, I might even release some map modification tools!
in any case, I hope that to be done soon so I can get this game out to the public, but I won't release it until I'm sure that it's of an acceptable quality. I'll be updating my progress on this blog, so stay tuned!
Completed thus far:
- Inventory System
- All containers (items)
- Environment Framework
- Class Design
- Game Design documents (90%+ completed)
I'm currently working on the zombie AI and some of the support code for mundane things. updates coming soon! until then, feel free to comment or ask any questions you might have!